Chapter 78

For the Record

I'm back at the castle. I've been here a month or two... Maybe more, I don't know - the days kind of bled together after a while. It's been a whirlwind of training, planning, and... Other things. See, after my last entry, Cinder did some damage to herself, on top of what Ruby did to her, by forcing her powers out before she'd recovered. So she's been out of commission for a while, and I've been stuck here with her.

And... Ugh, as much as I want to pretend it didn't happen, I doubt I can, because - as she literally told me - what else can she really expect to do in her current state? She almost literally fried herself by forcibly summoning her powers before her soul had fully recovered. I bet you may even know what I'm getting at if you're genre savvy enough - be it heat of the moment, or something that's been budding awhile, or just the logical conclusion to the trust I've been building with her, Cinder... How will I put it lightly? Cinder pulled a Neo before Neo pulled a Neo. I didn't get to say no, and I haven't really been allowed to since, for any reason, take your pick.

Now, you may be asking yourself: Why in the name of fuck (See what I did there?) would she do that?

Well... When I 'woke up' from my 'little nap,' two words stared me down on the tablet. Two words that told me everything I needed to know: Despite days to myself, essentially unsupervised, I failed. I couldn't find a single way to get a job done.

'Do it'

Ruby Rose is dead. Decapitated and burned to ashes.

I thought I was prepared for it. That I was ready to do it.

And I was.

She's dead, and I don't feel anything about it. No remorse, no sorrow, no anger, no depression or disappointment. I'm just numb to it all by now, she's another body on top of the fucking mountain I've made. It had to be done. I spent days trying to find a way out of it and I couldn't. For all my strength, for all my power, for all my knowledge both practical and fictional, for my literal fucking magic, I couldn't find a way to save her.

'Do it.'

So I did.

What terrifies me isn't how easy it was to just watch Cinder chop Ruby's head off like she did, or how easy it was to watch Cinder literally incinerate the body and go from that to her bedroom.
No, what terrifies me is that because I couldn't prevent that, it's very likely that the Watchmen have fallen apart. I broke my vow to Qrow, so what's to stop me from doing the same to Taurus? Or Torchwick? Or Ozpin? And if I did, what's to stop the others from betraying everyone else?
Maybe they'll rationalize it and understand why, but that won't change the fact that the Watchmen are finished, and that means my allies have shrunken down to Earth - and they won't send countless men and women to their deaths alone. Good as they are, they can't fight as many Grimm as are out here in a straight fight. Not without literally everything the Earth has, or a liberal sprinkling of nuclear munitions to precede it.

So that means Earth's out.
And my only remaining ally is Venom Aldric. God knows what he'll do in response to this. Maybe he'll put out fires, but I don't think he'll fix what I broke. He may very well try and bow out and instead work to prepare for the long haul instead of the final battle - and that's if he doesn't find another method of time travel and just try again.

So that means Venom's out.
And I'm alone.

All the stress, all the sacrifice, all the deaths, all the blood, the literal cancellation of an entire timeline, the people I've mutilated and scarred, the things I've done... It's all for nothing. I have nothing to show for it but the wrong people being on my side.

I have no one but me to help kill Salem and end this whole fucking fiasco. I only have me to run a goddamn gauntlet of Grimm, Cinder, Watts, Tyrian, Hazel, and the two Masters before I even get the chance to fight Salem.

I can't do that. As strong as I am, I just can't. Not without nuclear options, and I'd use up all of them getting to Salem, and have none of them left for her.

So... I have to put all of my eggs in one basket.

Because everything I've done, it did get me next to her, and that may be enough.

I had - well, have - an idea for what I could do after we defeated Salem... Now, that idea required we kill her in the first place, but I can alter it easily. I can change it, adapt it to instead be used as a weapon to kill her.

But the problem is that to make it work - to get the shot I'll need - I'll need the Relics.
All of them.

All of those together, and I'd have a shot.
But I would have to get them first. So that means I have to keep this act going - and I may have to kill former Watchmen to do it.
Or, if you prefer: The only way to avert the apocalypse is to literally bring the world to the absolute bleeding edge of it.

But if it works... Well, to quote a certain Mad Titan:
With all six stones I could simply snap my fingers and they'd all cease to exist.

And if I can do that - if I can fucking end it - I could make all of this mean something. I can validate all of the sacrifices I've made, all the people I've killed.
I have to just hold on, just a little longer.

And then, I can rest, and... Well, you know the rest.

And if I can't? If this failure is just a sign of things to come and I inevitably fail again?
Well: I won't live to see what happens, now will I?

Aldric wondered if this was what Mercury actually did every time he flew the Aviator - just sitting in the chair and waiting for the airship to land itself. The assassin's son had made such a fuss over flying this thing, but had he actually been flying it? Or did he just value the fact that he could use it as an excuse to not deal with the others for hours at a time? Aldric couldn't say he reciprocated the feeling, but that was probably because Mercury was fine with his lot in life. Aldric, meanwhile, had learned to despise having time to himself.

Of course, the only other option was to just let the ship fly itself and wander about - but that meant interacting with Cinder, and despite acting contrary, Aldric wasn't too fond of that option, either. After several months of being stuck with her, and with her having little else to do but drag him into her room, as bad as it sounded Aldric had actually been looking forward to getting out of the castle and fighting and bleeding and almost dying every day as, aside from humor her and keep up the act, there wasn't much else for him to really do except go out and go full Doomguy on the Grimm surrounding the castle for a few hours.

So when the word came that Hazel and the Master that he'd been assigned had found the Winter Maiden, Aldric was practically chomping at the bit to get out. He and Cinder packed their things - or, well, he did. Ever since she'd gotten half of Amber's soul Cinder had just ceased wearing weapons and armor, instead just making them on the fly. So where he wore his arsenal and, now, wore two suits of otherworldly armor, she just walked around in a dress, a fact of which he gave her no end of shit over. They piled themselves into Mercury's airship and took off, with Aldric plugging in the coordinates Hazel and the Master had given them, sitting back, and wondering what he'd do for the next few hours.

At least I can think freely, now. Aldric had been mentally chafing in Salem's castle, not sure if she was peeking into his mind or if she even could in the first place. Now's a good a time as ever to come up with a plan... He thought, eyes locked onto the ship's GPS while his radar focused on Cinder, soundly snoozing in her room. But... What the hell can I really plan? He frowned. To make the Big One work I need all the relics... And it's not like Salem will just let me make a grab at them. So I'll have to fight her, and Cinder's already shown me that's a bad gamble. A beat, an even worse one now that I'm essentially on my own. Without Venom to fight Cinder, without the Watchmen and their forces to fight Salem's Grimm, Masters, and Huntsmen, even if I could fight her, I couldn't solo her and everyone else on top of it. Once again he thought of how bad of a mistake allowing Ruby to die had been.

I can't even think of any nuclear options that'd do the trick. He sighed, nothing wouldn't wreck both of the planets, at least. He genuinely thought an Exterminatus would work, but obviously it also wouldn't.

With another sigh, he threw these thoughts away. There was no way to effectively plan for this inevitable encounter. The odds were stacked so high against him that he just couldn't. Securing the relics was the way to go - it was the only possible way to win this - but that was just step one. It was how he'd equalize things so he could move on to the killing blow. And as with all things, what happened after the relics would take time, and with the entire Legion of Doom hounding him, time was something he just wouldn't have unless things went absolutely perfectly.

Aldric yawned, his organic hand, encased in vibranium mail, passed over the utility belt wrapped around his waist, specifically over the 'nuclear pocket,' right next to the one where he kept the green radioactive rock that served no purpose. If he couldn't pull this off, what was his backup plan? This was a dragonball scenario - as long as he kept one of the relics from Salem, he'd be able to keep her from snapping her fingers, so to speak. But which one would he prioritize over all the others? Which one could Salem absolutely not have?

Four relics... Creation, Choice, Knowledge, and Destruction. He thought, idly clenching the 'nuclear pocket.'

He had absolutely no idea what their true functions were, or what they could do, but he had a good enough way to at least judge what they might be able to. If he equated them to Infinity Stones, the easiest one was to call Destruction the Power Stone, followed by calling Choice the Mind Stone. Knowledge and Creation were a bit trickier, but he was able to rationalize Knowledge as the Time Stone by figuring that 'knowledge' was as much knowing the answers to things and adapting what one knew based on new information - and unlimited time thus allowed for unlimited knowledge. Creation was the hardest one, because he wasn't sure what could fit 'creation' the best. He eliminated soul pretty fast, but was stuck between Reality and Space. The former would allow one to change or make literally whatever they wanted including creating something from nothing, which fit with the word 'creation,' but from a more scientific viewpoint, Space made more sense - as that was teleportation and omnipresence. Someone who controlled their position or the position of other things in space, if they were really creative enough, could feasibly rip wayward atoms from galaxies away and put them together in front of them to create whatever it was they wanted. This didn't violate the law that matter couldn't be created or destroyed, and still fit with the idea of 'creation,' and was eventually why he went with that over Reality, as it also fit with his preferred belief that 'Magic' was more just a fancy way of skipping a lot of steps in science. Willing the universe, as Ozpin had said.

So Creation is Space, Choice is Mind, Knowledge is Time, and Destruction is Power. Which one would be the absolute most dangerous for Salem to have, and thus the one above all that he'd want to keep from her if he were to die before he could use them?

One would think Destruction - as it would give her unlimited strength and an endless capacity to destroy whatever stood in front of her. Nothing could fight or defend against her, so obviously he'd want to keep Destruction away, right? Well - what if she used Creation to make a wormhole and just pluck it out of wherever it went? So maybe the best idea was to keep her limited to one place and to the resources at hand, and deny her Creation. But what if in response to that, she used Choice to slave people to her will, and forcibly create supply chains to get her what she wanted? Add on that if she were able to make her control over peoples minds viral, she'd essentially have millions to billions of literal human shields to back up her endless Grimm, and no one on Earth or Remnant would want to shoot their friends and family.

So, perhaps it was a good idea to let her keep Destruction and Creation, to give her a vastly powerful fighting force and the ability to fund herself, but deny her the ability to enslave minds? After all - Grimm were indeed intelligent, if lacking their own will. Slender Man, Mothra, Cubone, little Paarthurnax, and the bigger Grimm Dragon were all evidence of that. With Choice, the people fighting her could theoretically enslave a few armies of Grimm and use those like the Imperium used the Guard - as just raw numbers to back up their more superior, but far more numerically limited, fighting forces. Arguably that could be the best idea, as it would put Salem and the Earth/Remnant Alliance at a stalemate, as whoever she threw at them they'd be able to steal away from her, resulting in their most major positions being unassailable unless she specifically came with a huge army and both of her relics.

But, there was a problem with that idea, too: All she'd have to do would be to use the Knowledge relic to locate Choice, and from there she could use Creation to create a wormhole and teleport an army of billions of Grimm and herself to its location, and Destruction to ensure no one could harm or otherwise impede her while she retrieved Choice. And therein was the linchpin: Almost every single one of the above plans could be completely undone by Knowledge. It would reach through time and teach her whatever she wanted - Aldric honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the relic that taught her how to tame the Grimm and make the Dragon in the first place. With that relic, she could locate any of the ones he would steal from her. She could learn exactly what to do and how to attack and defeat her enemies, and if nothing else, Aldric had just proven how detrimental a lack of knowledge could be for someone. They could have unlimited strength, they could be wherever they wanted, make people do whatever they want, or have access to anything they could ever dream of - but without knowledge, what would they do with all of that?

So, as terrifying as the prospect of a Salem with limitless strength, the ability to make anything she wanted or even be anywhere she wanted, and the capacity to enslave anyone to her will, Aldric chose Knowledge as the one relic he'd have to deny her above all others. If he died, or was about to, he'd have to use everything - even if it meant burning the last remnants of his soul - to deny her that relic. From there, Earth and Remnant could fight for as long as they could, and he'd have to rely on the Justice League, the former members of the Watchmen, or even his own phantom, Venom Aldric, to act in his stead and enact his contingency plans.

"You seem lost in thought."

Aldric jumped, having not even noticed his radar shrink down to a minuscule radius while he'd made this all up.

Fortunately, he had a good deflection, as he swiveled around to Cinder and put on a grin, "I suppose I was expecting you to sneak up on me and do anything other than speak up."

She rolled her eyes, and softly placed herself in the copilot's seat. "Had I wanted that, I wouldn't have gotten dressed."

Aldric nodded to the side, then said, "no, I was thinking about something." He cleared his throat, as Cinder leveled her fiery gaze on him. "So: Grimm are Grimm because they don't have souls." He looked at her, and she nodded. "People and animals aren't Grimm, because they have souls." She nodded again, "that little bug you have in your hand there -" He pointed at the arm currently wrapped in a long, baggy sleeve. "- that thing gives you the Maidens' abilities because it steals their souls and transfers them to you. Thus making a human being without a soul."

Cinder frowned, "I suppose."

"Now, when we fought Fall, the process was interrupted, leaving her with half a soul, and they used Aura Healers to keep her healthy before they stuck her in stasis, so nothing really changed on a biological level." He began, "but now, Hazel and the other Master - Ben, I think his name was - they'll be hand delivering to us a healthy, uninjured Maiden. And you're going to be stealing this healthy, uninjured Maiden's soul to add her powers to yours." Aldric paused, lowering his hand. "What happens then?"

Cinder blinked, slowly tilting her head as her mind raced with the implications. "I... Don't know." She admitted. "Do you think a Human Grimm is possible?"

Aldric nodded, "we're serving one." He said, leaning forward. "So the real question is: If we make a Maiden into a Grimm, we make a Grimm that may be able to use magic, or at the very least should be able to use their old Semblance. Add on human-level intelligence and we're making a Grimm stronger than anything else imaginable." A beat, "well, save the one at the top, at least." He said, "and she's got her own goals and her own moral code... But this newborn Grimm, would it?"

Cinder leaned back, "ah." She drawled. "You're suggesting we put the Maidens down immediately after I steal their power."

Aldric did the same, nodding. "I think avoiding the risk is worth it. And if this is something she's actively seeking out, then she can't be pissed, because she didn't tell us to not do it." He hadn't necessarily pulled all of that out of thin air, as he'd been worrying about this ever since he'd realized he'd been a part of a time travel adventure without even knowing about it, but he'd had to deflect her sneaking up on him deep in thought.

Cinder hummed, "I can see the logic." She agreed, turning to the instrument clusters in front of her and peering at the GPS. "We're almost there."

"Half a planet in half a day. Even we can't do that without spacecraft." Aldric chuckled, as he felt in the back of his stomach the airship begin to descend.

Knowledge. He thought, turning to his own instrument cluster. Time. He watched the altimeter begin to drop. I've got to make sure she doesn't get it.

A few hours later, the ship was landed in the great Vacuoan desert, and Aldric and Cinder descended outside. There, just a few hundred meters away, Aldric could see four figures - one a hulking bear of a man, the other a thin, frail old man, the third a Seer Grimm, and the fourth was also the tiniest, on her knees.

Oh... Fuck. Aldric thought, as he slid Revan's helmet over his head, thankful that it would mask the expression he otherwise would have had to control. It's a kid. Aldric wondered if that meant it had been her mother was the Maiden, if someone so young had been the last thing in her mind when she'd died.

He forced the revulsion of what was about to happen out of his mind, and followed Cinder. He knew what to expect from the bear of a man - as, though never in person, he'd seen Hazel before. The Seer was also unremarkable, but the old man caught his attention. Another Master - the first he'd met under peaceful pretenses, besides Ozpin. The man looked like he'd been around during one or two of Germany's attempts at world domination, he was thin as a twig and covered from head to toe in wrinkles, and yet he carried himself with pride, and strength. His hands were behind his back, his wrinkled eyes settling onto Aldric, and his expression steeled, as Master met Master.

I wonder if he'd met my father. Aldric thought, nodding to Ben, who reciprocated, stiffly. Wonder if they spoke. Specifically about him.

Aldric lowered his gaze to the young Winter Maiden; a child, barely old enough to not be a toddler anymore. Her arms had been bound behind her back and her mouth was tied in a tight gag, her eyes were freely leaking tears as she struggled, but the Seer , Hazel, and Ben each behind her kept her from moving too much. It tore at what was left of Aldric's soul, knowing what was about to happen, and because of that he forced himself to watch, as Cinder reached the young girl and knelt down in front of her.

Cinder examined the terrified little girl a moment, appearing to be as surprised as he had been at her age, but not nearly as concerned about it, considering that the moment between the two - between Fall and Winter - lasted for just that - a moment. Cinder straightened up, and without any further fanfare, held her hand in front of the young girl's face, the familiar portal appearing on it and the bug wriggling its way out of her palm. Just as it had done with Amber, it did to the new Maiden - spitting out its stringy black tendrils and wrapping them around the young girl's face. Both Cinder and the girl's eyes began to glow as the latter's energy trailed down the tendrils and into Cinder, and as the young girl began to scream, Aldric noticed Ben grimacing and looking away from the proceedings.

Her anguished, agonized screams continued for a minor eternity until they began to peter out, and the light being drained from her began to fade away, the bug drinking the last drops before its tendrils receded, and it vanished back into the portal on Cinder's palm. Aldric turned his gaze to Cinder, seeing the disgustingly victorious sneer stretching across it as she opened her hand and white hot fire danced over her palm. She played with it a moment, making it dance between her fingers and flow down her arm before sinking harmlessly in her skin, and she let out a satisfied sigh.

And, as Aldric had worried, the former Winter Maiden began to turn.

"Cinder." Aldric grunted, pulling Vader's lightsaber from his hip and clenching it tight.

"Right." Said Cinder, her hand still glowing as she brought it to the once human's face.

With a flash of light, the Maiden vanished into ash.

"Was that absolutely necessary?!" Demanded a flabbergasted old man. "We could have at least buried her!" He turned his angry eyes from Cinder to Aldric. "Given her that!"

"Trust me, old timer." Aldric said, "what I was worried about seeing, if it had happened, this was better." He attracted the seer's attention with that, but it didn't say anything, instead being interrupted by Hazel.

"Gotta agree with Ben on this one. Would've been better to bury her." He glared at Cinder, "not one much for killing kids. Even ones tainted by him." He growled.

"Maybe, Bigby Wolf." Aldric interjected, "but not much can be done about it now."

"Quite." The Seer finally spoke, its voice silencing everyone. "Ben. Hazel. You two will continue to Mistral. Tyrian is currently searching for the Spring Maiden, and once he has located her you will wait there with him." She turned to Aldric and Cinder, "you two continue to Atlas... Helmut and Arthur have located the Summer Maiden, and are waiting for you on the edge of a battlefield between them and my Grimm." She said, before the image of salem vanished and the Seer grew still.

Aldric felt a grin tug at the corner of his lips as he turned to Ben, "so, Helmut and Ben, and I know for a fact that I'm the only one younger than forty on our plane, because I buried the bodies." He began, attracting Ben's attention. "And I killed the second youngest..." He paused, "well, isn't in the picture anymore. So that leaves you two... An American and a German... So is it absolute coincidence? Or did the universe really throw two World War Two vets back into it?"

"The irony is not lost on me, young man." Ben shot back, "must be hot underneath that mask." He said, as Aldric sensed Cinder once again playing with her powers, her eyes shut and a smile on her face, reveling in the fact that she no longer felt that metaphysical pain Ruby had afflicted her with.

"Whole suit's impregnable, figured I'd finish the look with an impregnable mask." And set up a 'who the hell's Bucky?'

Ben arced an eyebrow, "you make things?"

"You don't?" Aldric countered.

"No. Magic to me was always what I saw when I experimented in the sixties. The things Doctor Strange did. Why make things when I can alter reality to my whim?" He asked, as his very body aged and de-aged in front of Aldric's eyes, with the man going from his advanced age to his early twenties, and then snapping back."

"You're pretty open with that... And I'm surprised you read that kind of stuff." Aldric said, genuinely.

"Live as long as I have, and you stop caring to filter what you say... And we were all children once." Was Ben's response, "though I must admit a higher fondness for Superman." He sighed, wistfully, "that kind of hope is something a lot of people need... And a lot of people work to dismantle."

Aldric frowned, but didn't say anything, instead watching as Ben, Hazel, and the Seer left, soon cresting and then descending a sand dune and vanishing from sight. He waited until they left the range of his radar before turning to Cinder, "I have a headache."

"I wasn't going to try, actually." Cinder responded.

"In that case I'm fine." Aldric pried the helmet off, and followed Cinder into the Aviator. "How're you feeling?"

"Much better." Cinder responded, with a drawn out, satisfied sigh. "I'd been racked with pain so long that the lack thereof... I cannot describe it." She pulled another ball of fire out of thin air, Aldric sensing her grin return to her face as she said, "nor can I put to words the power I feel, now..." She looked over to her shoulder, "but I feel I don't need to."

To which, Aldric shrugged, as they stepped inside and into the air conditioned airship. "Can't help you there, Hot Stuff. Way my powers work it's literally all or nothing, and I've always been a wit-man as opposed to a strong man. So whenever I level up I put my points into dexterity and intelligence instead of strength... If you follow my logic."

She nodded, "I do." She said, she and Aldric each going to the pilots seats. "So... Atlas."

"Atlas."

The flight to Atlas was, for the most part, quiet. Aldric had nothing but his thoughts and the sound of Cinder flexing her growing powers and her newly healed soul to break the monotony, and neither of those were particularly pleasant for him, as for all the plans he thought up, he quickly reached the realization that with how badly he'd fucked everything up by killing Ruby, there was no real way to plan for his confrontation with Salem - the most important moment in his life, and he was realizing that he'd have to wing it. Fortunately, the trip wasn't nearly as long, taking only a few hours instead of the near dozen the flight from the castle to Vacuo had taken, so he didn't have to think about things too much.

When the ship came down for a landing, they'd crossed so many time zones that despite how long they'd been flying, the sun still managed to be up, leaving Aldric feeling forlornly nostalgic for a time long passed, when his biggest worries were jet lag and if he'd piss off his father by sleeping through the boarding call for their airplane. Aldric shook these thoughts out of his head, instead focusing on the here and now. Outside, he could sense Arthur and Helmut, the second Master/Huntsman pair and the ones in charge of finding the Summer Maiden. They, unlike Ben and Hazel, didn't have someone for them.

Aldric groaned, split down the middle between looking forward to fighting and working his frustrations out imminently, and dreading the potential injuries that would follow, and how they may affect his fight with Salem.

Cinder looked to him, puzzled, and by way of explanation, he offered, "bet there's a fight ahead."

"Good." Cinder grinned ferally, "a challenge."

Aldric rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything as the ship landed, sinking several inches into the snow and lurching to a halt. He felt like he was running on fumes, and reigning in Cinder and her literal lust for power would just take too much. He got up and followed Cinder outside, the cold air hitting him in the face like a baseball bat, a stark change from the blisteringly hot desert they had just left.

They found Helmut, and Arthur, both draped in thick winter clothing, standing in the snow, waiting for them. Arthur gave Cinder a bow when she approached, saying, "I am glad to see how well you've healed, young ma'am!" before repeating to Aldric, saying, "and it's a pleasure to finally meet you. Salem speaks about you and your feats in the highest regard."

Aldric shrugged, instead examining Helmut from the safety of behind his helmet. The guy somehow managed to look frailer than Ben had, and yet carried himself with the same kind of unnaturally youthful vigor that Ben had obtained, and just as Aldric was giving him a once over, Helmut was giving Aldric the stink-eye, clearly caring far less for pretenses.

Cinder spoke up, "You've found Summer?"

To which Arthur nodded, "yes indeed we have!" He indicated the mountain in the distance.

"Atlas squirreled away an entire fleet here in secret." Spoke Helmut, his German accent so thick and his voice so quiet that he was nearly absorbed by the sounds of snow and wind around them. "One hundred or so ships, on high alert ever since our world began streaming in." He shuffled uncomfortably in his thick coat, giving Aldric one last dirty look before focusing his attention on Cinder. "Unfortunately, Atlas and Earth began fighting this morning. So all the powers in the world couldn't convince my people to start a fight here."

Aldric repressed a groan by turning it into a chuckle, "those crazy bastards actually picked a fight with Earth?" He asked, raising his voice over the snow. "Have the nukes started flying yet?"

"Don't joke about that." Helmut snapped, "and no. Atlesian guns outrange Earth weapons. They've essentially turned their ships into airborne mortar cannons."

"So all we have are the Grimm, then." Cinder prodded, trying to get the conversation back on track.

Arthur nodded, "they've been hammering the Atlesians for some time, now. Light assaults, keeping them busy while a larger army builds itself up so as to distract them for our attack."

"And where's the Maiden?" Aldric asked. "Is she a little tyke, like the last one?" He watched Helmut for his reaction.

The man clenched his fist, but did nothing else. "No... She is an adult. And she is on the field of battle, protected by a custodian of some sort. They've been wiping entire swathes of Grimm off the map between them."

Aldric raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond further. Atlas gave a god a bodyguard? Was she inept, or was this an Emperor of Man type thing? Where the badass was surrounded by badasses so they could get more done? Deciding he'd end up figuring out pretty soon anyways, Aldric shelved the thought, as there was so little time between now and inevitably fighting this guy that it didn't matter.

And as Aldric resurfaced from his thoughts, he saw Helmut and Ben dashing away, and Cinder turned to him. "I zoned out, what happened?"

Cinder rolled her eyes, "the Grimm are coming from the east. They'll attack from the west. Atlas will be split in two, the Maiden will be left less guarded, and we'll strike."

Aldric nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Ah."

"What were you thinking about?" Cinder asked, nodding over her shoulder and leading Aldric into the building snowstorm.

Aldric, pushing aside the sheer incredulity of casually strolling into a warzone, said, "I just found it funny that Atlas gave a god a bodyguard."

"Implying that isn't what you are to me?" Cinder grinned cheekily.

Aldric shook his head, "I prefer to think of myself as the royal fool. I'm given carte blanche to call everyone idiots that way I keep them grounded." He said, the snow pelting his helmet and rapidly becoming all he could see - without his radar, Aldric quickly would have been blind.

"Can I trust you to handle him, while I take on her?"

Aldric nodded, removing the safety on his bolter and securing it to his belt, while in his right was nestled Vader's lightsaber. He followed Cinder deeper into the snowstorm, where the sounds of war soon began to fill their ears, initially muffled by the storm and distant, but quickly becoming more distinct and clear, until Aldric began to sense the Atlesian fighters at the edges of his radar. One look at Cinder told him all he needed to know - they weren't even concerns for her, and this was proven when some of the Atlesians somehow managed to see them through the snowstorm and open fire. Aldric's gun snapped up, but he didn't fire when he noticed the projectiles melting away before they even reached them - Cinder was protecting the two of them.

Oh that's a wonderful new trick. How the fuck would he manage to kill her now?

Putting those thoughts aside, Aldric opened fire, his great gun leveling out loud explosions with every pull of the trigger, every shot killing or maiming a defender. He and the dual-Maiden continued their advance unabated, all the building amounts of gunfire from the Atlesians amounting to nothing but a cloud of heat melting the snow on the ground and in the air around them. They were, quickly, an oasis of calm inside a literal storm of snow, providing a stark contrast to the absolute chaos they were sowing, killing scores of men, ripping apart battlesuits, and destroying mechs.

Adding their chaos onto the Grimm on one end, and the Master and Huntsman on the other end ripping apart the larger targets, it obviously didn't take long for their targets to catch on that something decidedly magical was happening. As they kept walking, Aldric sensed the Atlesians retreating, sprinting away and making all haste for fortifications closer to their mountain, while two lone individuals rushed in the opposite direction.

"Here they come." Aldric said, noticing one giant Olympian of a man, seven feet tall and clad in a full set of knight's armor, while his comparatively diminutive companion wore little else than sparse armor plates on her arms and torso, over a simple military uniform. They slowed down as they reached Cinder and Aldric, coming inside of their small area of no storm, their unintentional arena, Aldric could just see them at the edge where still air bled into a blizzard.

The Maiden, her dark hair done up in a tight bun, appeared stuck between unbridled rage and boundless disappointment. Aldric and Cinder both could tell that there was something eating at her, that there was something she wanted to say, but the woman shook her head, apparently deciding they weren't worth the effort as her eyes were wreathed in otherworldly fire.

"Oh shit." Aldric grunted, eyes snapping over towards the knight, as his Radar passed through his armor and gave him a look at the man's rugged, scarred face.

Cinder, her eyes still on the Maiden, turned an inch towards Aldric, "what?"

It made sense now, "it's not a bodyguard." Or at least that wasn't all the guy was. This was Atlas, it was Sparta with modern sensibilities and technology - a military nation, and the Summer Maiden represented a significant security threat even if she was loyal. One false move, one bad day, and she could turn all of that power on Atlas and kill scores of people. So while of course they'd want an extra set of hands to keep an eye on her and watch her back, this Knight served a second purpose.

"What is he?" Cinder asked, blazing eyes sliding over to the knight, whose hand was on the pommel of his sword and whose muscles were tensing.

"He's insurance." If she ever went rogue, or if ever there was a challenge they both couldn't overcome, he was there as her check and balance, as the one force she couldn't overpower with her abilities alone, and all Aldric needed was one peek under the helmet for this piece to fall into place. Much like why Aldric wore his helmet, the Knight wore his to hide something - but unlike Aldric, who was ensuring that the Justice League wouldn't be able to identify him before they encountered each other, the Knight was wearing a helmet so no one would see his greatest weapon, so everyone who encountered him would underestimate him.

So no one would look into his eyes.

"He has silver eyes." Aldric finally supplied.

Well.

Was this karma?

And whether it was or not, the Knight was the first to move - his hand shooting down towards his sword. Aldric sensed his eyes flash as they snapped down to the sword, and then back to Aldric and Cinder, so he was the second to move - shoving Cinder out of the way with a telekinetic push, and dropping down low, one leg braced behind him as his cybernetic arm came up, fist clenched, vibranium shield expanding to protect him. As Cinder's feet left the ground, the Knight's hand clenched around the hilt of his blade, and the Summer Maiden hopped into the air, a powerful gust of wind bringing her higher and higher.

Aldric braced himself as he sensed the Knight rip the sword out of its scabbard, and as Cinder adapted to the situation and blasted off like a rocket, the blade left its sheathe - wreathed in bright silver energy.

This is gonna SUCK! Aldric had time to think, as he clenched his eyes.

The Knight swung his blade in a wide arc and the Maiden took off for Cinder. An arc of silver energy blasted out of the blade and hurtled towards Aldric, carving up the ground and melting the snow beneath it. The wave slammed into Aldric's shield harmlessly, but it hadn't meant to hurt him - it had been meant to do something far worse. Aldric suddenly felt a great vacuum inside of him. The metaphorical warmth of his aura, the physical warmth he'd been creating with his semblance, the power of his magic, and his Radar Pulse - they all vanished in a heartbeat after the wave passed over him.

Aldric had been defanged. Even that 'Captain America' strength that remained whenever he ran out of energy, it was all gone - he was just an eighteen year old kid again. All that separated him from any other kid on the block was two years of life-or-death experience, forced fitness, and an armory of things he barely felt safe enough using when he had the powers of a god, but now? Without his semblance to pull him out of a bad spot? Without his powers to fix the problems that would inevitably rise?

He was mortal.

His hand ducked down and he peeked over the edge of his shield, cursing as he saw the Knight rushing him. He collapsed the vibranium shield wrapped around his left arm, it soon appearing like a vambrace as he charged the man, his right hand thumbing the button for his lightsaber.

I can't get into a boxing match with this guy! As much as he liked his chances when it came to the layers of armor deflecting the guy's sword, he didn't know what he could do beyond nullify Aldric's powers. I've got to end this now! Aldric thought as his bright red blade ignited with a loud Zhoom!

The mortal Master and the Silver Knight met at the center of their impromptu arena, both of their blades clenched in both of their hands. Aldric roared as he swung upwards, and the Knight remained deadly silent as he swung downwards. But where Aldric expected his blade to cleave clean through the man's own, instead it was caught fast - sparks flying and the sound of plasma grinding against steel filling the air.

The Knight had stopped his blade.

Through squinted eyes, Aldric realized how he'd done it - he could see the electricity arcing around the Knight's blade, and he cursed. Atlas had seen lightsabers in action before, and they weren't stupid - they knew they had to be plasma, and simple physics told them that a small amount of electric dust would effectively immunize their melee weapons to his blade by way of magnetic repulsion: Plasma was excited electrons, and electrons with similar charges would repel each other.

Now Aldric was in a sword fight with a guy who had probably been trained harder than a Spartan, and had the literal power to keep Aldric's own powers down and out.

Teeth gritted, Aldric and the Knight met eyes - or, rather, met visors, Aldric's Mandalorian helm looking into the Knight's plate helmet. Aldric couldn't see the man's eyes anymore underneath the shadows cast by his medieval mask, but he didn't need to to imagine the scowl on the man's face.

Only having one experience to draw on when it came to having to fight a superior opponent at their own game with both arms tied behind his back, Aldric decided it was time to baffle him with bullshit. Sacrificing his footing and immediately being pushed back several inches when he did so, Aldric lifted his front leg, brought it back, and then swung it upwards towards the Knight's groin.

It just bounced off - and of course it would, Aldric cursed. He was chainmail trying to kick through armored plates, what did he expect to happen, the guy would explode?

And worse than that, was the Knight took the chance offered to him and lunged forward, throwing Aldric completely off balance and disentangling their blades. His fist smashed Aldric in the face, turning the Master around a full one hundred eighty degrees and then shoving his blade forward. Fortunately for Aldric, beyond the simple pain of something sharp jabbing at him in between his shoulder blades, the suit encasing him, and the shirt over that, took everything - the blade was stuck for a moment before the weight and strength of the man dislodged it, causing it to keep going, to scrape itself off of Aldric's back and over his shoulder.

The Knight corrected himself instantly, but not fast enough - he fell forward just an inch too far, and Aldric capitalized on it, pushing himself backwards, thoroughly inside the Knight's defenses. He brought his left arm up and clenched his hand around the Knight's, but, knowing he lacked the strength to try anything fancy, like throwing the man in full plate armor over his shoulder, Aldric instead brought his lightsaber up and around, before chopping down on both the Knight's and his own arm - knowing that, for a few seconds at least, his arm could take the heat, and gambling on whether or not the Knight's whole suit was connected to electric dust, or just his sword.

His gamble paid off - he heard the Knight grunt as the edge of his blade dug into the man's armor, and the Knight immediately went on the defensive, smashing his helmeted head into the back of Aldric's, bringing his knee up in a vicious blow to Aldric's back, spinning the Master around twice, breaking his grip on his arm, and throwing him several dozen meters.

Aldric instinctually deactivated his blade as he tumbled through the air, and when he hit the ground he rolled to a halt, groaning as he felt his ribs ache.

Ow... He groaned, turning his head in the direction he'd flown from. Fuck... He cursed, finding that Cinder and his little stunt to clear the area of the blizzard had already fallen apart - he couldn't see more than a foot in front of him.

Aldric fell back to a defensive stance, mentally going over what he had on him and how he could use it to kill the Knight. His hand briefly paused over the pocket in his belt with the nuclear options, but he forced it onwards to grab his lightsaber. Those were for emergencies, and this wasn't an emergency quite yet, so he considered the other pockets. Some had guns of all shapes and sizes, but he doubted raw firepower would mean a difference here - if his bolter didn't stand up to testing, none of those would. Others enough bombs to level buildings, but he doubted his ability to survive those and help Cinder. Some had medicines, but nothing that would fix whatever this guy had just done to him. There were tools, but nothing that applied here, weapons and of course, nuclear options, but nothing he felt safe just throwing around. There were even a couple vehicles, but beyond helping him run away, they wouldn't do anything for him. Hell, without his magic he wasn't even sure the Power Glove would work like it usually did, so he couldn't even cheat and just eat the guy's sword.

Frowning, Aldric gritted his teeth when he heard the sounds of feet crunching snow - he'd just have to wing it. Until the guy did actual, lasting damage to him, Aldric could theoretically just keep taking punches to the armor and wait for him to tire out. He'd just have to do that until he could come up with a better plan - or until the Knight figured out hitting him was futile and found a way around his armor, like Thor and Blake had done.

The Knight appeared out of nowhere to Aldric's left, and Aldric fell to his knees, bringing his arm up and taking a titanic blow to his shield to defend himself. The suit absorbed the force of the blow, but the weight behind it still pushed Aldric an inch into the snow, and he counted himself lucky that it was his left arm, the stronger one, in an arm-wrestling match with the guy instead of his right.

And that thought made Aldric grin, as an idea formed in his mind. He lunged to the side, causing the blade to scrape off of his arm, and then he pushed himself upwards - his metal fist surging forward as fast and as hard as he could make it. It had some of the intended effect - the enhanced strength of the limb hit like a dump truck, but the man had aura, so it took a lot of the blow. The Knight stumbled back, literally shaking off the attach and swinging his sword in a wide arc to deflect Aldric's next punch, pushing hard enough to cause Aldric to spin around on the ball of his foot. This, however, was led perfectly into Aldric's next attack, because as he spun back around, the man started with a grunt and fell back to defend himself from Aldric's activating lightsaber.

Their blades clashed again, but now with their positions reversed - Aldric on the down swing, and the Knight on the up. Aldric put as much of his weight into it as he could, but the Knight was stronger by default, even before aura was added into it. It didn't take long for him to start climbing back up to a standing position, and then to push back on Aldric - but Aldric improvised, and pushed back as hard as he could, leaning into it and forcing the man to put more of his strength into the struggle. When he felt that the Knight was past the point of no return, Aldric deactivated his lightsaber - and the man, now with no resistance, surged forward.

Aldric wanted to quickly reactivate his lightsaber and shove it into the Knight's chest as they collided with each other, but the Knight was faster, clothes-lining Aldric in the throat and practically slamming him into the ground. The Knight's hand then latched around Aldric's head and started wrenching at his helmet - so Aldric, thinking fast, ripped his bolter off of his hip and clenched his stomach as he brought it to bear on the Knight.

The first bolt exploded on the Knight's stomach, the next was influenced by the gun's recoil and hit the man's chest, both of the detonations rocking both of the fighters, but the Knight was the one to react - practically feeling Aldric eat away at his aura, he darted away, giving Aldric the space to scramble heavily back to his feet, coughing and sputtering all the while.

When he got back up, to keep the Knight away Aldric brought the bolter back up and fired again. The Knight, however, didn't run or dodge or protect himself - he swung his blade up and cleaved the gigantic bullet in two, triggering its explosion but leaving him mostly unharmed, and Aldric exasperated. This guy wasn't being a good supervillain - he was learning, adapting, and being a badass while doing it. Damn it, he was supposed to fuck up and die! Not learn and live!

Aldric gasped for air, only the temperature outside keeping his helmet from fogging up. He straightened back up and resecured the gun to his hip, and pulled out his lightsaber. Clearly, unless he wanted to pull out a fucking Fat Man, this was the only thing he had that would kill this guy. He just had to open up a shot at his chest. As he recovered and the Knight readied himself, Aldric saw just over the man's shoulder a bright blue light ram itself into an equally bright red light, like two meteors slamming into each other and trying to force the other to move so they could go on their way.

Well I hope she's having fun... Aldric looked back down to the Knight, who hadn't taken his eyes off of Aldric. Aldric looked down at the man's burned arm, seeing the molten metal of his armor having cooled. Wonder why I'm not writhing in pain like she was... Is it the armor? He ignited his blade with a loud zhoom! Or maybe there's an intensity setting to their powers... And Ruby dialed it up to eleven.

He charged the Knight, and the Knight charged him. The Knight took the initiative this time, swinging his blade in a heavy horizontal arc - Aldric ducked underneath it and swung his red pillar of plasma at it, pushing it further away and forcing the Knight to overextend himself. It almost worked, the Knight fell forward and his shoulder and back were exposed to Aldric, but the Knight recovered quickly and used this to his advantage - shoving forward on his backfoot and ramming his shoulder into Aldric's chest. Aldric grunted and fell back a step, and the Knight followed it up with a vicious upward swing from his longsword, it dragged ineffectually at Aldric's chest, but nicked the bottom of his helmet hard enough to make Aldric feel as though he'd been punched in the jaw. The Knight kept his momentum up and spun into his next attack, turning it into a downward slice - this one specifically aimed at his head, the Knight apparently having noticed that of everywhere he'd attacked, the only time where Aldric appeared to have registered it was when he'd hit his head.

It was all Aldric could do to twist out of the way, but the sword still caught him on his shoulder, and it felt almost as bad as when his father had tagged him with Thor's hammer - it almost dislocated his shoulder entirely. But, it did give Aldric the single split-second he needed to thrust his lightsaber forward, and miraculously, his desperate attack actually paid off - and the Knight had a pillar of red light sticking out of his back.

Aldric didn't let any hope leak into his heart, though - because from the way the Knight reacted, Aldric realized that this would only slow him down. To prove this, the Knight threw himself forward - impaling himself further on the sword in the process - to smash his armored head into Aldric's helmeted face. The shock of the impact stunned Aldric, and this gave the Knight the chance to kick Aldric in the ribs and send him skidding back, with it only being pure luck that had Aldric keep ahold of his blade and rip it out of the man's chest as he slid back across the snow and ice.

Aldric shook the stars from his eyes, but the Knight was already on top of him - he swung his sword so hard and so face that Aldric felt his neck crack from the impact. He was sent sprawling across the ground, and it was all he could do to bring his blade up to block the Knight's next downward slice. The Knight's blade bounced off of Aldric's, but Aldric fell to his back, and the Knight wailed on him again and again. Aldric, practically feeling the concussion clouding his head, acted on the first idea that even sounded like it might work: He deactivated the lightsaber, let his arms fall to the ground, and allowed the man to follow through with his next swing.

It smashed into Aldric's left arm, digging in between Aldric's shoulder and the arm itself - right at the seam where Cinder had cut apart the suit back at Beacon. Aldric felt a stinging, burning pain well up, just as he felt something warm start leaking out of his shoulder, and knew the Knight had found his way around Aldric's armor. But, with a brief glance - and the feeling of the Knight trying and failing to wrench the blade out of Aldric's arm - Aldric realized that the Knight had overstepped himself and gotten his sword lodged in Aldric's shoulder. Not counting his blessings, Aldric threw his right hand up and activated his lightsaber - this time, it cleaved through the Knight's stomach. Aldric saw his aura shatter, but the Knight wasn't letting go without a fight - he brought his foot up and smashed it down on Aldric's helmet. Though the helmet shielded him, the blow still hurt and kept Aldric pinned, and even gave the Knight the leverage he needed to rip his sword out of his arm.

Aldric yelled in pain as the sword tore out of his shoulder, but its sudden absence gave his arm a full range of motion again - allowing him to grab at the bolter again. The Knight, however, didn't let Aldric so much as lift it before he brought his sword down on the great gun, cutting it into pieces just as Aldric pulled the trigger. This resulted in the bolt exploding prematurely, which had the side effect of detonating all of the ammunition left. Aldric, thanks to his suit, was left mostly unharmed, but the Knight was thrown several meters, his armor scorched and some parts of it penetrated.

Aldric lumbered to his feet, and as he stumbled to the side, he felt something inside of him - a warmth. This coincided with just a fraction of his Radar returning - not nearly enough to reach the Knight, but enough to let him know the guy's attack was wearing off.

Oh thank - Aldric didn't so much as finish before he was bowled over by another silver wave, this one slamming into him with physical force and throwing him to his back. Now he was starting to feel a bit closer to how he'd felt under Beacon - all of his skin was tingling, as though he'd just dove stark naked into hot water. The warmth and the small radar vanished again, and Aldric had to lift the helmet off of his face to hack up some blood.

"Ugh..." He grunted, wiping the blood from his chin and replacing the helmet. "Fuck -" He lumbered back to his feet, seeing that the Knight wasn't doing much better than him, red leaking out of the holes in his suit, making the scorched parts black running with red. "Fuck you!" He coughed.

He had one last idea before he'd go nuclear, and he decided there was nothing better to do but to gamble on it, so with bared teeth, he reactivated his bright red lightsaber and charged. The Knight lunged forward too - and threw a spanner into Aldric's works.

Because the Knight had been fighting left handed this entire time.

He'd never once used his semblance.

He changed that now - and before Aldric's eyes, he saw the Knight's shadow grow up from the ground, slithering up the man's back and inflating, appearing after a moment like a person sprouting out of the man's back. As the two reached each other, this shadow took form, deflating until it looked like an actual person and not a balloon animal - and it was a person Aldric recognized.

It was him. All of his color drained away to inky blackness, this shadowy Aldric reached around, sinking his arms into the Knight's, and locking its eyes onto Aldric, just as Aldric and the Knight reached each other.

Aldric didn't want to fuck around and find out what this was going to be - he swung his sword, intending to meet the man in another struggle. When their blades clashed, however, the Knight seemed to know what Aldric was about to do the instant before he did it - quickly leaning back as Aldric deactivated his blade. Instead of the Knight stumbling to the side and presenting his head for a decapitating strike, he had taken control of his momentum and brought his sword up - with Aldric having no time at all to dodge out of the way. He felt the blade scratch the side of his helmet as he lunged to the side, grunted, and then darted forward, his left fist clenched and shield extended - its pointed end ready to dig into the man's armor with a meteoric blow.

The Knight, however, twisted out of the way like a dancer, quickly appearing behind Aldric and cutting at his back with two lightning-fast horizontal swings. Aldric gritted his teeth to it and whipped around to face his enemy, activating his blade and spinning it around, parrying the man's sword. But again, the Knight predicted his attack and was ready for it - blade already in a defensive position, both arms bracing it. This resulted in Aldric's blade bouncing off of it like a baseball bat smacking into a tree, and it let the man instantly lunge forward, digging his blade into Aldric's chest - its sharp tip jabbing his chest, right where the hole in his vibranium armor was. The mithril shirt caught it, fortunately, and this resulted in Aldric being pushed back, but he knew his skin had opened up, just a minor tear in his skin, and he gritted his teeth.

What the fuck was this?!

The Knight didn't let up - taking the initiative, he lunged at Aldric. Aldric brought his blade up to deflect the man's horizontal swing, but the Knight adapted faster than Aldric was ready for - one hand leaving his blade and grabbing both of Aldric's, locking his hand and his blade where they were. The Knight disentangled his longsword with Aldric's red pillar of light, brought it up, and bashed his pommel onto Aldric's mask hard enough that Aldric felt his neck crack from his head whipping back. The Knight bashed his face again before throwing Aldric to the side - he'd clearly figured out by now that he wasn't breaking through Aldric's armor, but he could sure as hell knock him the fuck out.

Aldric hit the ground and scrambled back to his feet, growling, as he realized he knew what was happening. It was the guy's semblance - he'd sprouted a fucking Sharingan! No, no - worse! That image, the shadow of Aldric on his back, the guy's reflexes hadn't just increased, he knew exactly what Aldric was doing, exactly how he'd do it, and how to counter it as a result. He'd been deliberately letting the fight play out so he could get more exposure to how Aldric fought, what his instincts were, so they could imprint upon him.

The Knight was going Taskmaster on his ass!

And of course, to add insult to injury, when Aldric got back to his feet, he was hit with another silver wave - now, without any powers to nullify, it went right for the throat. Aldric saw stars, his skin felt like it had just been set on fire, his bones aches, he felt blood leaking from between his teeth and out of his nose, the guy had just hit his fucking soul.

Aldric backed up, he'd fucked up - bad. He couldn't keep boxing this guy, he literally couldn't - he knew exactly how he fought and would be able to tear Aldric to pieces soon enough, once he found out that all he had to do was rip off Aldric's helmet. He had to do something that wasn't physical, that the guy wasn't used to and that his semblance couldn't help him with. Since his bolter was trash and scrap metal, he couldn't shoot him - not that it would work anyways, since the fucker had cut a bolt in two already - and since he wasn't fond of his chances with the other guns in his belt, that meant he needed something big, and something that would finally take this medieval asshole out.

It was nuke time.

And, uniquely in this case, that was quite literal.

One hand still clenching his lightsaber, his feet shuffling beneath him and building distance between him and the Knight - who was advancing in step with Aldric - the Master dug into his belt and pulled out a bomb. This, however, wasn't a nuke - and the Knight realized instantly what it was: A Flashbang. Aldric tossed it at the Knight, who ducked down and covered his eyes and ears as Aldric quickly thrust his hand into another pocket, sacrificing his ears to spare his eyes. His world was dark, and soon was rendered deaf when the bomb went off - but the distraction gave him the time he needed to rip out a small glass bottle, crush it to pieces, and enlarge the weapon he'd stowed inside.

I got more than enough shots. Aldric thought, teeth gritted as he opened his eyes and a tremendous weight fell into his hand.

Aldric hefted the giant catapult onto his shoulder, dropping his lightsaber, as the Knight stood back up straight - and saw that he'd played right into Aldric's hands. In one of which, was balanced a shoulder-mounted metal catapult, its barrel collapsed, its rear resting on his shoulder, and its trigger in Aldric's hand - and in the other hand, was a small nuclear warhead the size of a football. He'd meant for this to be a crowd clearer - if he had to go through an army of Grimm, this would do the job - and a boss battler - if he ran afoul of a giant Grimm that just didn't want to play fair, this would take enough chunks out of it, and, as with all his nuclear, he'd also hoped to use it on Salem. But unlike his other nuclear options, this one wasn't one-use. It was a gun, he could make ammo for it as long as he had the magic and the Power Glove nanites.

But, like all his nuclear options, this one carried tremendous risk, and was a rabbit he couldn't put back in the hat if he didn't use it wisely - because unlike his other nuclear options, this one actually made good on the nuclear part.

He slammed a warhead home and pushed the barrel forward, a spring winding up and a light 'ding' letting him know the Fat Man was ready to fire.

And Aldric did - pulling the trigger, he launched his nuke and was completely unafraid to admit that he immediately dropped to the ground and cowered, covering his eyes and mostly deaf ears as soon as the mini-nuke left the launcher. He didn't watch the Knight mistake it for a regular bomb and just dive out of the way to avoid the initial explosion, but he sure as hell heard what came after, when the bomb reached its target, slammed into the ground, and detonated.

Aldric felt the ground heave underneath him and fell over as the shockwave passed over him - for as small as the bomb was, it had still been a fucking nuke, and it still hit like one. A wave of heat replaced the blistering cold for several seconds, before the natural Atlesian weather overcame Aldric's partly magical weapon and washed back over him - and when that happened, Aldric felt safe to look back up.

He saw the final wavering remnants of the mushroom cloud as they vanished - all of the snow on the ground had melted, and there was a huge black scorch mark reaching out for several meters around. At the edge of the meter-long crater, Aldric saw a corpse - or, half of one. He'd blown the Knight's legs clean off, and had burned the rest so bad that the metal of his armor had boiled off and the skin and muscles on his back were just missing, leaving a scorched and exposed spine in their place.

Aldric's shoulders slumped forward and he let out a huge gasp of relief. He sat there for several seconds, before the sounds of Cinder's fight and the war past that reached him, and reminded him he still had a job to do, now that he was done doing his part as a loyal Terran and nuking the alien planet. After recovering the Fat Man and stowing it and the rest of its ammunition in his belt, Aldric pulled a random pistol out of one of his pockets, removed the safety, and put the entire magazine into the dead Knight's head, from where he was. He wasn't going to take any chances with the Knight being alive, or by hanging out right next to ground zero of a nuclear blast.

God, I'm stupid. He cursed. Where's all that radiation going to go in this blizzard? How many cancers did I just give people? Sure, it was a small bomb and in the games the radiation went away after a while, but he'd still nuked the poor bastard, this had to have consequences, even if only minor ones.

Clipping the pistol to his belt and picking up his lightsaber, Aldric circled the crater and then rushed towards where he could hear Cinder fighting, and see the colored lights of she and the Summer Maiden throwing magic and fire at each other. He managed to see the two of them properly just as Cinder cleaved through one of the Maiden's blades with her lightsaber, and the Maiden lunged forward with an electrically charged hand and physically grabbed Cinder's blade, wrenching it out of the way so the Maiden could smash a burning fist into Cinder's nose.

No magic, no semblance, no bolter, probably irradiated, stupid tired, pain in my everything... Just a random ass pistol, a lightsaber, and armor that's desperately making a case for why I shouldn't melt it down into plates. Aldric groaned, stretching his shoulder as he tried to come up with a plan.

Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of was to put the Maiden in a full nelson, but he didn't want to sacrifice himself today, so he needed another option.

If I could startle her, distract her, Cinder might be able - Everything fell into place, Aldric let another piece of his soul rot away, and he turned back to go hunt down the Knight's corpse. Now unable to avoid being right next to the nuclear crater, Aldric worked fast - igniting his lightsaber and chopping he Knight's head off before pulling it off of the ground. Examining it, Aldric found that the Knight's faceplate, what had been covered by the ground and spared the nuclear fire, was still mostly as it had been before Aldric had dropped the bomb.

She'd recognize it immediately.

Aldric ran back to Cinder and the Maiden, huffing and puffing, and when he saw them, they were clashing swords again, their movements so fast that they looked instantaneous.

Aldric put a stop to that with a loud "HEY, LADY!"

They separated from their next clash, each gasping for air, their eyes burning with magical energy. They both turned to Aldric - Cinder with a smile growing on her face, the Maiden with a look of horror gracing hers, as Aldric lifted the Knight's head.

"Fuck -" Aldric hurled the head at her, and it cleared several meters before hitting the ground and rolling to a halt long before her. "- you!"

It had the desired effect - the Maiden was stunned, she gasped, completely unable to process that the tank that had likely been and fought with her her entire career was dead. Cinder picked up on this instantly and capitalized - vanishing and appearing behind the Maiden, her crossguard lightsaber held in both hands as she heavily swung it at the Maiden's legs. Aldric sprinted forward as the Maiden hit the ground, screaming - she tried to put up a fight, but she'd made her disastrous mistake and would be unable to recover. She blasted Cinder with a gout of fire from her mouth, and while her right arm was tasked to keeping her upright, her left arm thrust towards Aldric and blasted him with electricity.

But, Aldric ducked behind his shields and kept charging, while Cinder patiently waited, using her blade to deflect the fire. The lightning splayed off of them harmlessly, and Aldric circled around the Maiden, putting his boot to her back and stunning her, causing her mouth to snap shut and the lightning to fizzle out. Then, Aldric grabbed both of her arms and violently pulled them back while he pushed forward with his foot - putting her in a painful position, head exposed and leaned towards Cinder, whose vicious grin cracked her bruised and bloodied face as she stowed her lightsaber on her back.

"Do it!" Aldric shouted, the Maiden using her incredible strength and already almost breaking free. "Do it!"

Cinder did it - thrusting her hand forward, the Grimm Bug crawled out and attached itself to the Summer Maiden's face. The Maiden screamed as loud as she could - an ear piercing shriek that caused Aldric's ears to ring again so soon after recovering from the first round of explosions. Aldric clenched his eyes shut and held onto the thrashing Maiden tighter as Cinder drained the woman of her power, laughing as she did it - the kind of maniacal laugh of a person who was getting away with something they knew they shouldn't be, and was all but getting off on it; and when Cinder was finished, when the Maiden went slack and had nothing else to give, when the Grimm Bug released her, Cinder pulled her arm back and then thrust it up into the air, blasting out a gout of orange, purple, and white fire, spinning out in a guyser as it blasted through the air, clearing the snow, killing the storm, and briefly silencing the war around them, until all Aldric could hear was Cinder victoriously laughing, and the fire she was shooting.

Power... Aldric thought, gasping for air as he released the Maiden's corpse and pulled out his pistol. She thinks magic is power. He gritted his teeth and put a bullet in the back of the Maiden's head before the soulless husk before them could go Grimm. He supposed it worked, because she didn't turn into smoke and she didn't get back up after Cinder was done with her little display.

Well that's just fucking great. Aldric gasped, straightening up, putting his fist on his back, and stretching, watching Cinder close her eyes, and revel in the third soul she'd stolen, and the raw power coursing through her. How in the flaming fuck am I going to deal with her once she has all four?